ABSTRACT
In January 2010, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) threatened to sue Starbucks for using images of pre-Hispanic artefacts and monuments on promotional materials designed for the Mexican market. This chapter shows how the Mexican regime of patrimonio denies the possibility of idioms of cultural property on national soil by legally separating artefacts and monuments as "culture" from the lands where they are found, as well from their social and environmental contexts. The focus on the town of San Miguel Coatlinchan, famous for the forced removal of a colossal pre-Hispanic stone carving in the 1960s and its relocation to the National Anthropology Museum as national patrimonio, to ethnographically illustrate how Mexican patrimonio in fact differs significantly from conventional understandings of "cultural property", thereby urging us to think critically about the latter's appropriateness as a global category.
